Customer Reviews

DMT D3EFC 3-inch Dia-Sharp® Sharpener, Credit Card Sized- Extra-Fine, Fine and Coarse Diamond

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a marvelous sharpening system. It is inexpensive and although won't put as nice of an edge as the Norton Waterstone system Norton Waterstone Starter Kit: 1) 220/1000 grit stone and 1) 4000/8000 grit stone, 1) SiC flattening stone it is a lot cheaper. I like these and use them for a convenient portable sharpener. I have sat in coffee shops and such and sharpened with these because they fit so well in a pocket. They don't require any lubricant but it is best to rinse them off after use (I used the drinking fountain at college) although you can do several uses and just wipe them off with your finger, water rinsing only once in a while. The coarse will put an edge on a very dull knife, if it is not too bad use a proper honing motion, but if it is really bad I "scrub" the blade with the card to make it work faster first, and then do the traditional motion when it is closer to an edge.

If you use the coarse until the edge will catch on your fingernail at the shallowest angle permitted by the blade, then use the fine until the blade will cut hair off your arm, and finally use the extra-fine until the edge shaves nicely, you will get a satisfactory edge, but make sure you check along the entire edge, not just one point. If you progress too quickly through the grits, it is much harder to get the blade razor sharp. I use adequate pressure with the coarse, lighten up a little for the fine, and just glide along the extra-fine. Razor-sharp is possible with these cards but it does take a little to break them in. At first they feel rough and will feel smoother after use, but after use they work better, faster, and can make things sharper.

Note these also work well in the kitchen.

Another note is that the DMT diamonds are mono-crystalline, which is better than the cheaper poly-crystalline diamonds that do not last as long or work as well.

I like these and they work very well for what they are, but prefer my waterstones for getting an edge that makes hair fly off my arm in fear.

OH I LOVE this set. WONDERFUL!

First of all, it's a DMT product, and their diamond crystals are superior to the competition to begin with.
Normally, diamond sharpening stones have the characteristic honey-comb appearance. The purpose for this is to help remove the metal dust created by the sharpening process. The dust falls into the honey-comb pattern, keeping the cutting surface clear.

That's great, and it works very well on knife blades. But that pattern is a problem when sharpening tiny things, and pointy things. Anything small enough to partially "fall" into a honey-comb hole pattern requires a continuous sharpening surface, like these!

I have only had this set for a few weeks, and have used them a zillion times.

Most recently, last night. My wife shopping (Amazon, naturally) for yet another pair of tweezers.
I asked her to show me the "dead" ones, and she brought down her tweezer grave-yard box.

In short order I had re-dressed those tweezer surfaces to better-than-new performance. Then I went after my heavily abused "tool" quality tweezers, and THOSE are all now good enough to pluck Tinkerbell's nostril hair. (video pending)

Here's something else... last week, I was shopping for a new "head" for my electric razor. It's a very nice 3-head Norelco. But when the head wears out, it's expensive to replace. I took the cutting blades out, lubricated just the "fine" sharpening plate with a few drops of water, and gave the cutting surfaces a bit of a polish.

Holy cows! It's like night-and day difference!
With just those TWO items sharpened, this set has more than paid for itself already.
Now THAT'S value.

Despite their tiny (credit-card) size, they are fairly heavy, so I was not carrying them every day. Well, I've changed my mind. They are just TOO useful to be without, and now they have a permanent home in my Maxpedition Versa-pack. (a manly guy satchel, not a "fanny pack". So there.)


Now, ONE little warning: These are a set of tools, NOT some kind of magical sharpening machine.
No more than a nice socket set is a magical tune-up macine for your vehicle.


I see negative reviews here on perfectly wonderful sharpening sets, which is absurd.
It's like saying that your car runs rough because your craftsman socket wrench did a bad job tuning your car up.

Every tool has it's physical properties and limitations, and sharpeing requires a little bit of knowlege and skill.
The more practice you get, the better your understanding becomes. (well, for most people, anyway.)
If you're new to sharpening, you will get much better results if you do a little bit of free reading on the Internet, and watch a few YouTube videos to see how experienced people do it. And yes, you'll find even the "Pro's" contradict eachother all the time.

Don't worry about it.

ANYONE can put a really decent edge on a piece of steel with a little practice.
(I recommend DMT's other knife sharpening products as well.)

PERFECTION... well, that's another story all together. There is a lot of "obession" in the sharpeing game.

Take your skills as far as is comfortable for you.
Just keep it fun.

-Berk

I bought this little kit in order to have a super lightweight and small size diamond sharpener I could keep in my pack or wallet and never know it was there. For that purpose they are great. The coarsest one is still really not coarse enough to put an edge on a super dull knife, but you shouldn't be venturing out with a dull knife anyway, and it's got more than enough to grit to keep a sharp knife honed up during use.

Okay, so I feel like I may need to justify the fact that I do have a real need to sharpen things on the go on a fairly regular basis. I started a small sharpening and tool refurbishing service with my retired father out of his shop on the weekends after I'm done with my day job. I'm saying all of that to hopefully explain away the sharpening geekdom I'm about to lay down. We'll see how it goes... I do also have a rather modest (okay...massive) personal collection of items (knives, swords, axes, shovels etc...) that require semi-frequent sharpening. So, the necessity of the act of sharpening things aside, I do also sharpen things for fun. It's my way of meditating...

So between the amateur and professional experience, I think I've tried nearly every different sharpening device or method known to man. Giant Tormek machines; wet and dry grinding wheels; tri-hones by the dozen; oilstones of every size, grade and shape; natural and synthetic Japanese waterstones; corundum paper wrapped over mirror glass; quartz belts; leather stropping belts; a solid hand-cranked quartz grinding wheel that belonged to my Great-Grandfather, viking whetstones, the top edge of a car window glass...everything. And the only ones that have stood the test of time and effectiveness are the diamond plates. They don't dish, they don't wear out (only seeming to get better/smoother with age) and they can even be used to level/flatten out other worn out/dished stones. A tool that does the job better than anything else and can actually fix other tools? What else can you say that about?! And beyond the hype, I can vouch that the DMT's are the best of the bunch. I've tried the alternative brands and the DMT bonding process is just plain stronger than the competition - so the grit lasts longer. From a connoisseur's POV, the mono-crystalline diamonds they use actually do seem to make a positive difference when you're trying to get a tough material to cut. The feedback is better too.

Now while I do appreciate that I scored this set at a huge discount over purchasing the cards separately, I'd also have to say that carrying all three of them together in your wallet is a patently ludicrous proposition. The weight of the cards alone is enough to turn your wallet into an incredibly ineffective (and expensive) shot-put. Combine that with the fact that the Coarse (Blue) plate is only really useful for serious stock removal or possibly re-profiling, (something I usually only tackle on a full bench plate) and the near-uselessness of the Extra-Fine (Green) plate for anything but stropping or lapping (caused by the low grit and super-wide (9 micron) mesh, and you're left with only a 1/3 win. Now, because of my hobby/business, I'll probably be keeping the Coarse grit card close at hand specifically for the time consuming process of sharpening my scandi knives or my axes. Otherwise though, the Extra-Fine card could easily be replaced by a scrap of thin and inexpensive 3M 9 micron (notice it's the same mesh as the SF card) lapping film as an equally effective way to polish an edge or knock loose a burr. Seriously, get some of the film in bulk, lay it on something flat and try it in combo with the Fine grit card. You're nearly guaranteed to come out with an edge that will make the hair on your arm preemptively leap to its death in sheer terror. The back of these cards are even smooth... So you can trace around the card, cut-out a scrap of the film, glue it to the back of the Fine card with a bit of epoxy and come out with a 2-in-1 sharpening dynamo that actually WILL fit in your wallet...without breaking it.

Update: The break in time for the Extra-Fine plate apparently took much longer than the others of the set. Needless to say, its managed to suddently become my favorite of the bunch for polishing edges, adding micro-bevels and even stropping/sharpening my diposable razor blades (by running them ever-so-lightly backwards on the EF plate covered with a thin film of honing oil). It takes them back to factory-sharp in seconds. So needless to say, by the money savings alone, that's the the coolest thing since sliced bread!

Hope that helps,
Thanks again for your time.

After receiving these sharpening cards I must say I am very impressed. The cards are -as the name implies- about the size of a credit card (a tad smaller). I love how it comes with three different textures because it allows you to fix an edge no matter what condition it's in. The cards don't weigh much and can very easily slip in to a pack and allow for quick field sharping on a knife or even an axe or hatchet. i would definitely recommend these to anyone looking for a way to sharpen their cutting tools for a cheap price and great portability.

This is a great way to sharpen nearly any knife you could imagine. I love keeping the medium stone in my wallet to sharpen on the fly. Good quality and will last for years. I will be investing into a bench sized sharpener.

I bought these sharpeners for my husband as a Christmas gift. He's used the heck out of them sharpening all of his knives. He loves them. It was def. a great purchase. thank you

these are good for taking with on a long hiking trip, they are small and lite, and work nice. not as fast working as larger 4" or 6 or 8" but way liter and small.

Being a sheet of metal it's a little heavier than you might expect, but the product works great and is perfectly compact. I sharpened my pocket knife to hair shaving sharpness within a few minutes using these sharpeners.

this is a nice set of compact 'stones' - i used my set to reprofile and put a nice a edge on my Kabar BK11 (the factory edge leaves much to be desired)

i also had an old plastic hunting permit wallet that holds all three of the conveniently together...

this kit is going into the bug-out bag that i use when fishing at the beach - my hooks are going to be super sharp now!

i like how these are so easy to clean and how little pressure is required to sharpen my pocketknives

the assortment is a bonus...

the only thing i'd like to see is DMT to come out with this package in dual-sided grits, and include either an extra-coarse or super-fine card